


Toasted Marshmallows

by thecelery



Category: Big Time Rush
Genre: Alternate Ending, Episode Related, Fluff, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-06
Packaged: 2017-11-13 23:21:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/508861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecelery/pseuds/thecelery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James and Carlos are just two kids looking for a good time at Camp Wonky Donkey. When a pretty girl enters the picture, however, James can't help but feel left behind. Taking matters into his own hands, he does what he thinks is best for his and Carlos' friendship, only to have that decision come back to haunt him six years later and, in turn, become the catalyst for starting over with a different perspective on what Carlos means to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Plan of Attack

Outside of her sprawling suburban Minnesota mansion, Brooke Diamond followed a trail of strategically placed marshmallows down the driveway on the way to her car. She knew where they came from and why they were there. Her 11-year-old son, James, had placed the trail leading up to the hood of her car, where a pamphlet for “the wonkiest camp you’ll ever see!” lay beneath one of the windshield wipers. She picked it up and casually glanced at it. A logo with a smiling, and somewhat homicidal-looking, donkey decorated the front cover atop a photo of three children of different races and ages holding hands and skipping together. She flipped through some of the folds and saw that James had circled, in red pen, all of the “awesome adventures you’ll have at Camp Wonky Donkey” and written commentary like “see?” and “isn’t this super cool, mom?” next to them. She shook her head and smiled at the excitement of the boy before placing the pamphlet in her purse and unlocking the door to her car.

From the second story window, James watched as his mom drove off to work.

“Yes,” he exclaimed as his pumped his fists in a victory pose and ran down to the kitchen to pick up the phone and call his best friend. “Hey, Carlos,” he shouted into the receiver, “I think my mom’s totally gonna let me go to Camp Wonky Donkey. Did you ask your parents yet?”  


“Not yet,” the other boy responded sounding a little nervous, “I’m kinda scared. What if they say no? Then all of our plans will be ruined!”

James and Carlos had devised a plan earlier in the year. They were going to go to Camp Wonky Donkey together and while they were there, they’d become the most popular kids at camp. They’d be the best chefs, sack racers, and bird house crafters the camping world had ever seen. Then they would meet the loves of their lives and nothing would get in their way…except maybe parental consent.

“Well, hurry up!” James said with an exasperated sigh accentuating his impatience, “we only have a week left to register!!” 

“Okay, okay,” Carlos replied, trying to keep his best friend calm, “I’ll ask Papi when he gets home from work.” 

“Good, and make sure you make those really sad puppy eyes at him. Those always work on him,” James said, thinking about the way they sometimes even worked on him. 

“Do they?” Carlos asked, not exactly sure what James was rattling on about now. 

“Well…yeah. They get all big and watery and sparkly and your mouth does this thing where it gets all…you know? Sad and stuff,” James responded, “Your dad always falls for that!”

Carlos hadn’t realized he’d ever done anything of the sort. He just figured he was really good at convincing his dad with his words and strong arguments, but now that James had brought this habit to his attention, he was going to start getting self-conscious about it.

“Oh yeah, that thing that I do,” Carlos laughed nervously, “anyway, I gotta go. My mom’s making me clean up the entire kitchen. I’ll call you after I ask my Papi, okay? Bye!”

Carlos hung up the phone and looked around at the kitchen. Sure, he didn’t have a huge mansion like James’ mom did, but the kitchen was big enough for him to not want to clean the whole thing. He put his hands on his hips and huffed before taking out a garbage bag from under the sink and getting to work. James never had to worry about things like this. His mom hired a cleaning lady and they had a whole crew of people working there to make sure the house was always as spotless as possible. The only part of the house that wasn’t museum-like was James’ room. His door was plastered with signs that read “keep out! no cleaning allowed!” and the people who cleaned the place always managed to leave just enough clothes on the floor to make it seem like they hadn’t been in there. In reality, they’d often check his bed for crumbs or leftover peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches underneath. Brooke paid them extra to make sure no insect ever stepped foot inside her house. Carlos stopped daydreaming about having a maid and decided to get back to cleaning. After all, if he was going to ask his parents to send him to a relatively expensive camp this summer, it was always a good idea to make a good impression on them and suck up as much as possible. 

“Wow, son. Great job cleaning the kitchen,” Carlos’ dad exclaimed as he stepped into the house and noticed it had been cleaned spotless from top to bottom. “Did you clean the rest of the house, too?” 

“Wuh? Huh?” answered a groggy Carlos, “Oh. Yeah. I did.” The boy yawned and stretched his arms. After cleaning the kitchen, he realized he might  as well try to earn a few extra points with his parents if he cleaned the rest of the house, too. From the sound of it, he had, so he stood up from the couch and ran up to his dad. He stood in front of him for a few seconds with a big grin on his face. 

“What is it, son?” his dad asked after a while, “You’re starting to creep me out.” 

“Well…James and I want to go to Camp Wonky Donkey together this summer and we were wondering if you and mom and his mom and his dad would be willing to pay for the registration and stuff cause that would be really cool and if you want I can take some money out of my allowance and help you pay for it please dad please?” Carlos begged. 

“We’ll see,” he said.

“But-” 

“We’ll see, Carlos,” he repeated to his son as he walked upstairs to change out of his police uniform. 

Carlos looked at the ground in front of him and all around the newly spotless house and sighed. “All that hard work for nothin’.” 

“Well, it’s no fun if you’re not gonna be there!” James said to Carlos as the two of them walked to the nearby park to play “water balloon dodgeball” with Kendall and Logan.

“I know, dude. But my dad just said ‘we’ll see’ and when he says that it usually means no.” Carlos pouted a little and sighed for what seemed like the fiftieth time that day. What fun would the summer be if his best friend was away for most of it? Sure, he had Logan and Kendall to keep him company, but the two of them were practically inseparable ever since they’d met and it didn’t seem like that was going to change this summer, leaving Carlos feeling like the third wheel. Might as well just get married, he thought to himself, simultaneously making a sour face.

“Hey,” James said suddenly, snapping Carlos out of his disappointment-induced trance, “what if we both got together and talked to your parents? We could make a presentation and everything. With charts and all that smart stuff. We could ask Logan to help us!” 

“I guess we could try,” he said, not exactly feeling too confident after the night before. If cleaning the entire house wouldn’t convince his dad to immediately say yes, how could a dumb presentation do it? 

“Well, you could start off by listing these statistics that prove that a summer at camp makes children more self-sufficient and socially active, as well as providing a strong base for a more active lifestyle in the future,” Logan said. James and Carlos had brought him along (and Kendall, of course, who was seemingly attached to his hip) to James’ dad’s house for a meeting of the minds. In this case it was more of a meeting of Logan’s mind with himself, since he ended up taking over the entire project on his own after about a minute of work. James and Carlos didn’t mind, though. Logan was a smart kid. He knew things that no one in the sixth grade even knew existed yet, so the only logical thing to do was to sit back and watch him do all of the work. Besides, the two of them were fairly lazy anyway and had no idea how to even go about doing the presentation in the first place, so a “project manager” was a good thing to have. 

“Yeah, sounds good,” Carlos agreed from the sidelines. James nodded in silent agreement as he smoothed his hair in the handheld mirror he brought along to his dad’s house in his overnight bag. 

Kendall watched in amazement as Logan crunched numbers and wrote things down without even having to read a single book on the topic. 

”These are all just things you know?” he asked as he sat on the couch and stared alternately at the large pad of paper and at Logan. How does he do it?

“Yep,” Logan replied with a smile, “I spent an entire summer trying to convince my mom of the same thing a couple of years back and it just…stuck.”

“Okay, okay,” Carlos and James said simultaneously as they tried to focus the attention back onto their needs. 

“Sorry,” Kendall sarcastically apologized as he rolled his eyes at the two sitting on the loveseat next to him, “is it my fault Logan’s brain is a fascinating thing?” 

“Look we just…we just have to get this done by tonight, okay?” Carlos replied with that very same sad puppy look James had talked to him about earlier, “the deadline is tomorrow and if we don’t register by then then, we’re toast!”

“You are not gonna die if you don’t go to this camp, Carlos,” Kendall responded, “what’s so great about camps anyway? They make you go poop in the woods and you get ticks and bug bites and the bears try to steal all of your food!” 

“Well, I might die if I don’t go. That’s how bad I want it! And also, I don’t care where I poop, they make bug repellent and there are no bears at Camp Wonky Donkey, see?” 

Carlos removed the crinkled and worn camp pamphlet from his back pocket and pointed to the large, fluorescent orange print on the inside which read “NOW 100% BEAR FREE!”

“Can we please just focus?” Logan said as he continued to jot down camp-related facts on the large notepad which sat on an aluminum easel. Never one to be unprepared, he rushed to his house to pick up the planning supplies almost immediately after James and Carlos finished telling him about the plan. 

The other three boys sat quietly for the next fifteen minutes, idly playing with their hands and the hems of their shirts as they waited for Logan to finish his presentation. 

“Done!” he exclaimed, startling his friends as he suddenly interrupted the silence in which they sat.

“Thanks, Logan!” Carlos said excitedly, running over to the easel and picking up the pad. James ushered Kendall and Logan out the door, taking the fully assembled easel with him. 

“W-we have to fold it first!” Logan exclaimed. 

“There’s no time. We have to go now!” James responded as he pushed him and Kendall and locked the door behind them. 

“See you guys later! Thanks for the help!” Carlos shouted as he and James raced to get to his house just in time to greet his parents once they returned from work.

 

James took the large paper pad and flipped through it before setting it down on the easel.

“Jeez, how many pages is this thing?!” he wondered aloud.

Suddenly, the boys heard a jingling of keys and the lock on the front door turning. They rushed to put themselves into position, flanking either side of their presentation and flashing their biggest, cheesiest smiles. 

As soon as Officer Garcia stepped into the front door, he took one look at James and Carlos and shook his head in amusement. 

“Look, boys,” he said sternly, “if this is your way of trying to convince us to let you go to camp, it’s no use.” 

“But-” Carlos started to argue as his face contorted once again into the sad puppy look he had relied on in the past.

“And don’t give me that look because it’s not going to work this time.” 

“Officer Garcia,” James interjected, “this whole camp thing is really important to me and Carlos! We’re sick of being here all summer. It’s boring! Besides being in camp teaches you all about self-efficiency and stuff!” 

He stepped back and placed a reassuring hand on his best friend’s shoulder, seeing that the boy had become disappointed and looked like he was on the verge of tears. He knew it wouldn’t work!

“James, I appreciate your concern for Carlos but you’re wasting your time, son,”  Officer Garcia said, “because his mother and I already signed him up for camp two weeks ago.”

James and Carlos both perked up at the news. 

“Wait, really?!” Carlos asked.

“Yep! And James, your mother also signed you up at the same time. She and Mrs. Garcia ran into each other at the mall and they talked about how much you boys wanted to go, so they decided to surprise you guys with it,” he informed them with a bright smile. Then, as if anticipating this would happen, he reached into the hallway closet and took out two yellow Camp Wonky Donkey t-shirts with the camp’s logo printed in front in dark brown ink. The same creepy donkey mascot gracing the center of the circle, its head sticking out of a teepee, surrounded by the camp’s name. 

James and Carlos ran towards Officer Garcia and grabbed the t-shirts before wrapping him up a big hug and thanking him profusely. 

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou, you’re the best dad ever!” Carlos said as he squeezed his father even tighter.

“Ooh, I should go thank my mom!” James said as he let go of Carlos’ father and ran out the door, “see you later, Carlos!"

 

Two weeks later, James and Carlos sat on the front lawn of Carlos’ house, double and triple-checking that they had all of the supplies in the “required” list the camp had sent along with the t-shirts they were wearing, along with a pair of khaki cargo shorts, tall socks, and grey canvas shoes.

“You boys all set?” asked Carlos’ mom as she slid open the van’s door. 

“Yep!” they both said excitedly as they climbed into the back seats of the van. 

James and Carlos were both nervous with excitement. They said their goodbyes to Kendall and Logan and threatened to tell everyone in the seventh grade their secrets if they forgot about them during the next six weeks and got new best friends. They weren’t exactly sure they had any secrets, but they pinkie swore just in case. 

An hour and a half later, they hopped out of the van, backpacks filled with supplies and giant smiles plastered on their faces. They gasped as they took in the sight. There was Camp Wonky Donkey. The Camp Wonky Donkey. “Wheeeeere you’ll have a Wonky Donkey day. Hee haw!”  they sang in their heads. 

After their parents had checked them in and they had all settled down, the camp counselors were introduced and the boys and girls had been given all of their new schedules. James and Carlos stepped outside and looked for their cabin. On the way there, Carlos accidentally bumped into someone as he read the map. 

“Oh, sorry,” he said before looking up. He froze for a moment, staring at the person he had just apologized to. It was a girl. And not just any girl, this was the girl of his dreams. She was taller than him and had long, dark brown hair past her shoulders.  Her eyes were the color of blue he only ever read about in those corny old poems he read at school. But suddenly all of those corny poems made sense. He hadn’t become the champion sack racer, hadn’t earned the “best chef on the lake” title, hadn’t built a single birdhouse, and he certainly hadn’t met anyone besides her. He had, however, decided he’d just met the love of his life.


	2. The Marshmallow Kings

James cleared his throat, snapping Carlos out of his trance.

"S-sorry," he stuttered again, smiling broadly at the still nameless girl standing in front of him. She smiled softly back at Carlos while James alternated between looking at the both of them, wondering what this unspoken thing was.

"Carlos," he said after a few awkward seconds, "maybe we should keep looking for our cabin so that we can put our stuff down. This backpack is really heavy."

"Oh," Carlos responded, still not looking away from the girl. "We should. Probably do that. Okay."

Suddenly, the girl spoke.

"Carlos?" she said, "I’m Heather. Heather Fox."

"Carlos Garcia," he introduced himself before being elbowed in the ribs by his companion. "Oh. And uh, this is James Diamond. My best friend."

"Hi," James smiled back, turning on the kind of charm usually reserved for people older than eleven.

"Listen, it was nice meeting you guys, but I gotta go. If we don’t get to our cabins soon we’re gonna be in big trouble," Heather said.

"Right. Yeah," Carlos replied, "totally."

 

The boys and Heather parted ways, Carlos turning to look back at the way her hair softly bounced with every step she took. She seemed to walk in slow motion and a glow appeared to radiate from her that he had never seen come from any other person. He sighed quietly and walked in silence next to James before the other boy spoke up.

 

"What was that all about?" James asked.

"What was what?"

"That. That whole thing with the girl back there."

"You mean Heather," Carlos responded, a underlying tone of offense taking over his voice.

"Yeah, Heather," James said, waving two hands in the air, wondering why his friend was getting so worked up about this. Sure, Heather was a pretty girl. Her hair did seem to float in the non-existent breeze of this hot summer day and she did have eyes whose color rivaled that of any ocean he’d ever seen before but so what? What was the big deal? Girls like her were a dime a dozen…at least in the world of TV. Maybe it was just Carlos’ amazement at having seen a gorgeous girl up close that got to him, but James? Well, James had seen these types of girls before in the magazines his mom would get from clothing stores and in TV shows and music videos.

 

"Oh, I don’t know," Carlos replied, "did you see her?!"

"Yeah, I guess," James said.

"She’s the love of my life," Carlos sighed.

"Really? Really, Carlos? You just met her!"

“So? Did you see the way she smiled at me? Did you see the way she looked back at me when she was walking away?” Carlos sighed. “I’m so in love. And so is she.”

James scrunched his face up in annoyance. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let’s just keep looking for our cabin.”

 

They continued the rest of the trek toward their cabin in silence. James presumed Carlos was daydreaming about Heather and took a look at the map in his hands every now and then to make sure he was leading them in the right direction. When he saw that they’d veered off the trail, he snatched the map from Carlos and snapped him back to reality.

 

“You were about to get us lost, you know that?” he said, a frown forming on the corners of his mouth. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but he was becoming more and more upset by the minute. Maybe I’m just hungry.

“I…yeah, sorry,” replied Carlos, still somewhat stuck in a daydream and not aware that his best friend was becoming somewhat moody. The only thing on his mind right now was Heather and how he intended to get her to notice him in a more romantic light.

  
  


Fifteen minutes later, James and Carlos had found their cabin. Once inside, they realized that the rest of their cabin mates had already arrived and had been waiting for them for at least half an hour. The boys apologized profusely to their fellow campers and counselors, making up a story about how they had to take the long way because they had seen a skunk cross their path and didn’t want to risk angering it. The counselors bought it and Carlos didn’t feel so bad about having to lie. James, however, became more and more aggravated with Carlos each passing minute. After settling down, James and Carlos realized they had arrived much too late for the both of them to share a set of bunk beds, so they resigned themselves to sleeping on opposite ends of the cabin for the duration of their stay. James didn’t mind right now, though. He was far too angry at Carlos for nearly getting them lost and making them arrive late. I don’t even want to sleep anywhere near him anyway.

 

“You know what stinks?” Carlos asked as he bounded toward his best friend who was now sulking into the mattress of his lower bunk.

“You?” he replied.

“W-what? Why would you say that? What did I do?”

“You know what you did!” exclaimed James. “You almost made us get lost, you made us late to the meeting, and,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “you made us lie to the counselors about a skunk!”

Carlos crossed his arms and shot James a look of disbelief. His best friend was acting cold toward him for no reason at all. They would always get into trouble together and James hardly ever complained. He wondered what made today any different.

“Oh, like you’re Mister Innocent,” said Carlos.

“You know what?” James said. “Let’s just forget this whole thing. Let’s go get something to eat and maybe once I’ve had something I’ll calm down, okay?” He slung an arm around Carlos and pulled him close, not saying a single word. Carlos knew it was James’ way of apologizing so he accepted this non-verbal cue and lightly punched him in the arm before slinging one of his own arms around James.

“Don’t do that again!” he said, suppressing a laugh as they walked together to get their food fix.

  
  


At the lunch table, Carlos read over the day’s schedule of activities.

“Ooh, a marshmallow roast at 8:30!” he said rather loudly. “I wonder if Heather’s gonna be there.”

 

James rolled his eyes at his best friend’s infatuation, still not understanding what made Heather Fox so special and different from the rest of the girls at camp. He took a look around the room and noticed that the other girls weren’t too bad looking. He wouldn’t have minded kissing a few of them himself. He shrugged and bit into his sandwich, nearly choking when he realized what it was made of.

 

“Woah, James,” Carlos shouted as he turned to face him, “you okay?”

“This sandwich,” James managed to utter between hacking coughs, “has grape. Jelly. In it.” Carlos’ eyes widened and he ran for a counselor.

“You gotta be careful with those sandwiches!” he exclaimed. “James is allergic to grape jelly!”

“Oh, gee, sorry kid,” the counselor replied. “We’ll get him to the nurse right away. Does he have his allergy medication with him?”

“Yeah, I think so, but it’s back at the cabin. Is it okay if I run to get it?”

 

The counselor nodded and Carlos made his way through the maze of lunch tables, dashing past Heather and her friends but not stopping to make eye contact this time. He ran as fast as he could toward the cabin and located James’ bunk, digging recklessly through his backpack trying to find the medication. He finally grabbed a hold of it through several pairs of socks and tossed the rest of his things aside, shoving the medicine into his pocket and making a mad dash back to the lunch cabin. He spotted James and the counselor waiting for him outside and the three of them went as quickly as possible to the camp nurse.

 

“Quick, give him his medicine,” Carlos shouted, shoving the inhaler into the nurse’s hand as James lightly wheezed behind him.

“Woah, woah, honey! Calm down,” she replied. “We’ll fix your friend up right away. What happened?”

“He ate a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. He’s allergic to that kind of jelly! Why do you think he always has strawberry?!” Carlos continued to shout. The counselor placed a gentle, reassuring hand on his shoulders to try to calm him down.

“Okay, c’mere,” the nurse motioned to James and he walked calmly toward her. His face had begun to break out into a rash and he continued to quietly wheeze. The nurse calmly placed his inhaler into his hand and he took a few quick pumps from it. Carlos sat and watched as James’ breathing slowly returned to normal. They both sighed in relief simultaneously and Carlos stepped away from the counselors grip, wrapping James up in a tight hug.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice muffled by James’ shoulder. “If I had been paying more attention I would have noticed there was grape in it and this wouldn’t have happened and you wouldn’t have almo-”

“It’s okay,” James said with a light chuckle. “It’s not your fault! I should have checked anyway but I was too angry to notice.”

 

Carlos removed himself from James, placing both hands on his shoulders and smiling at him. James smiled back sweetly before reaching out and ruffling Carlos’ hair a bit.

“You’re a dork, you know that?”

“I’m not a dork! What’s wrong with not wanting your best friend to die?”

“I wasn’t gonna die!” replied James. “I just couldn’t breathe a little.”

“All right, guys. Come on,” the counselor said as he motioned for the boys to follow him back to lunch. “We’ll get you a different kind of sandwich and call your mom to let her know what happened. Sorry about all this, guys.”

  
  


Back at lunch, James rapidly tore through his turkey and cheese sandwich. “Man,” he said with his mouth full, “I am so hungry.” Carlos watched him in silence and chuckled. He noticed Heather looking at him out the corner of his eye and directed his attention to her. She smiled at him and tucked a bit of hair behind her ear before standing up and walking toward him.

 

“Oh my god,” Carlos said to James quietly as he gently shook him by the arm. “She’s coming over here. What do I do? What do I do?”

“Mmmf mhmf mmfmf,” James tried to reply with his mouthful of sandwich.

“Hi!” Heather said, now standing directly across from the boys. “Mind if I sit down?”

 

Carlos shook his head silently, a dreamy look taking over his face as he watched Heather’s every move. Her eyes were even more blue up close and her hair had the same ethereal qualities as it did outside.

“I just wanted to tell you how sweet it was of you to help your friend out like that,” she said shyly. “I think it’s really cute how you care about him so much.”

“Th-thanks,” Carlos stuttered as his face turned a shade of red. James turned to smile at him before wrapping an arm around him and pulling him close for a few seconds.

“He’s a nice guy,” he told Heather. “Always doing nice things for his friends. Did you know I would’ve died if it wasn’t for him?” Sure, he was stretching the truth a little, but he owed it to Carlos after what happened earlier. Making him look good in front of Heather was just his way of saying thanks. Heather’s eyes widened in amazement.

“Wow,” she whispered, still keeping her eyes on Carlos the entire time.

 

The counselors called for all the kids to finish up their food and clean up their tables and Heather began to leave before sitting back down swiftly.

  
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “I’ll see you guys tonight at the marshmallow roast! Hope you guys have your best ghost stories prepared! Bye!”  
  
Carlos watched as she sprinted back to her table and cleaned up after herself. James chuckled as he watched him and shook his head gently. He began to clean up his sandwich crumbs and spills of juice and gently lifted Carlos’ elbow to retrieve the scrap of sandwich wrap that lay beneath him. James snapped his fingers.  
  


“C’mon!” he yelled at Carlos. “We gotta go!”

Carlos snapped out of his daydream and helped James pick up what was left of their mess and they headed toward the trash cans before going back to their cabin to prepare for the rest of the day’s activities.

 

Back at the cabin, Carlos and James planned out the scariest, most gruesome tales of horror they could think of, including the tale of the hockey-playing ghosts that haunted the old skating rink near their home. The ghosts, as legend told, sought revenge on their rival team, whose captain had beheaded one of their star players with his razor sharp skates.  The boys shivered as they recounted the story and a draft seeped in through the logs of their cabin, making them shake even harder. Carlos looked down at his watch every few minutes, counting down the time until he and Heather would meet again.

 

“So,” James spoke suddenly, getting Carlos’ attention back from his wrist, “are you ready to be crowned the marshmallow roast king of the camp?”

“You bet I am!” replied Carlos with an air of confidence James rarely saw in him.

“Good! And you better not forget, I’m your taste-tester.”

“No one knows more about marshmallows than you do, James.” The two smiled at each other for a second before the door of their cabin flew open, startling them a little due to the ghost stories they had been reminded of earlier. In stepped their counselor, Kevin, telling the children it was time to head out to the campfires. James and Carlos dashed from their beds, taking a couple of sweaters along with them to make sure they wouldn’t catch a cold from the chilly night air. On the way, they picked up the pointiest tree branches they could find, perfect for stabbing through a few marshmallows. Once at the campfires, Carlos poked his head out as far as he could, searching for his “true love” throughout the clearing.

“Heather!” he shouted, surprising both James and himself with his forwardness. “Over here!”

She mouthed a silent “hi” and waved back, making her way through all the other kids sitting on the ground. “Glad you remembered me,” she said with a sweet smile. “Hi, James!”

 

James waved silently and smiled back then resumed examining the density of the marshmallows impaled in the branches of his twig.

“What is he doing?” Heather asked Carlos, visibly confused.

“Oh, he’s just checking out how thick the marshmallows are for me. We’re totally gonna make the best toasted marshmallows out of everyone here!”

“Yep,” James added. “We’re gonna be known as the Marshmallow Kings of the Midwest. Just watch.”

 

Heather giggled at the boys’ ambitious dreams and followed Carlos to the campfire. She took a seat between them. James noticed and silently motioned to the other boy that she had taken his assistant’s spot, but Carlos only shrugged and smiled apologetically, mouthing a silent “sorry” to his friend.

 

“Okay!” Carlos exclaimed after settling in. “Let’s start toastin’ some ‘mallows!” He rubbed his hands together and blew on them in preparation and gathered the marshmallow stick between his hands, only sticking one marshmallow on it as a test run, before stylishly positioning it over the fire. Heather watched in amazement as the boy rotated the sticky sweet every so often, blowing out the fire, then putting it back into it to give it a second toasting. After he finished his first “test toast”, he absent-mindedly handed the treat to Heather, forgetting he had promised James his first one earlier in the day.

“Wow,” she exclaimed, “this is the best toasted marshmallow I’ve ever tasted!”

“Dude!” James shouted as his friend realized what he’d done.

“Oh. Sorry, James!” Carlos replied from behind Heather. “Sorry.”

 

He quickly picked up a second marshmallow from the bag and repeated the toasting process, handing it to his best friend, who was muttering under his breath about how it “wasn’t the same”. James’ mood grew considerably more sour as the roast went along. Carlos had even forgotten about the hockey ghost story they were supposed to tell, favoring a longing gaze at Heather instead. James picked up his own less than perfect toasted marshmallow and chewed angrily, giving Heather and Carlos a shifty-eyed look every now and then.

 

Once the fires had been put out, Heather said goodbye to Carlos, giving him a very shy and quick hug and waving goodbye to James on her way back to her cabin mates. Carlos sighed.

 

“Isn’t she great?”

“Yeah, I guess,” James said insincerely as he shrugged.

“Okay,” Carlos said, “what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean ‘nothing’? You’re mad. What’s wrong?”

“It’s just,” James began to explain, “you said I could have your first marshmallow and you gave it to her instead.”

“I said I was sorry!” Carlos replied. “Besides, it wasn’t on purpose. I got totally lost in her eyes and you know how that is! Besides, we still have plenty more roasts to become the Marshmallow Kings of the Midwest!”

“Yeah, sure. I bet you and Heather will be the Marshmallow King and Queen, instead,” James said as he kicked a few rocks along the path, accidentally hitting one of their cabin mates on the back of his leg. The kid shot a look back at James and Carlos and they both apologized shyly.

“Look, James,” Carlos said, “I don’t know what your problem is lately, but you gotta stop acting like such a kid!”

“We are kids, genius!”

 

Carlos huffed. “You know what I mean.”

“Whatever. I’m just gonna go to sleep. It’s not like you need me anymore anyway,” James replied.

“What? Of course I still need you!” exclaimed Carlos. “We still have to beat everyone at the sack race, remember?”

 

He tried to get James’ attention by dropping his head and making eye contact with him. James smiled slightly.

“Yeah, I guess we can still have that.”

“Good!” Carlos responded, affectionately tapping James on the chest before entering the cabin and heading toward his bunk. He whispered a soft goodnight as his best friend waved in response.

 

James sighed before getting in bed. He’d never felt like he was in danger of losing his best friend before any of this, but he was afraid he just might if he didn’t do something about it quickly. He picked up the bed sheets and covered himself, settling comfortably in for a good night’s sleep and drifting off within minutes.


	3. Past, Present, Future

It had been almost six weeks since James and Carlos arrived at Camp Wonky Donkey, all smiles and nervous excitement. They had planned for the greatest adventure of their young lives and they had planned on doing it together. So far, in the five weeks and six days since arriving, Carlos had been crowned the best marshmallow toaster at camp, alone. He’d also become the sole champion sack racer and had every girl, boy, and camp counselor as part of his extended circle of friends, leaving James feeling more and more neglected every day. Worse than that, he had begun to feel replaced by Heather, Carlos’ new “soulmate”.

 

Their second to last day started off with Arts and Crafts. The children were instructed to build a birdhouse to suit their taste, but were also warned to remember to put a hole in the front so that the birds could actually eat out of them. Apparently, forgetting to do this was a common occurrence at Camp Wonky Donkey. James decided to build his birds a mansion. He’d placed several sparkly rhinestones down the entire length of the two-story house, including around the doors and windows and along the roof. Carlos opted for a much more “homemade” style of birdhouse. He’d haphazardly thrown together a foundation and stuck more and more craft sticks to the front, including a “chimney” which he later admitted was just a stick that had accidentally, and coincidentally, been glued along the back when he knocked his birdhouse over.

 

“Be careful not to get any glue on yourselves, guys,” Kevin joked. “You don’t wanna end up glued to each other for the rest of your lives.”

 

James laughed at the idea. After all, how exactly would a person be able to get themselves that stuck to another one with simple wood glue? Fairly easily, it seemed. He turned away for one second and when he turned back, he’d found Carlos’ entire left hand was covered in glue and he was asking Heather for a high-five on building such a nice birdhouse. James tried to grab Carlos around the wrist before the damage could be done, but he wasn’t fast enough. Before he knew it, Carlos and Heather had been stuck on each other, this time literally.

 

“Uh,” James started to say, “we have a glue emergency over here!”

 

“Wait, shhh,” Carlos responded to James’ cries for assistance. “I want to be stuck on her!”

 

In just seconds, Kevin had approached their crafting table and noticed what had happened. Heather and Carlos smiled nervously at their counselor who motioned for them to follow him to the nurse.

“This isn’t really a medical emergency,” Heather insisted. But Kevin wouldn’t have it. He’d been witness to James and Carlos visiting the camp nurse almost every day since they’d been there and he wasn’t about to take another chance with them. 

Meanwhile, James remained at the crafting table, happily gluing more rhinestones onto his bird “mansion” and humming a tune of victory in his one-sided fight against Heather. His happiness was short-lived however, when he noticed that just a few minutes later, Heather, Carlos, and Kevin had returned and his best friend was still stuck to the girl. 

James tilted his head curiously. “What happened? I thought they were gonna get you guys unstuck?”

“So did we,” Carlos replied. “But I guess they have to order some special solver-”

“Solvent,” Heather corrected him.

“…solvent to get rid of the glue.”

“Oh,” James responded. “Well, aren’t they gonna try to even like…pull you guys apart or something? It seems dumb having to go the whole day stuck together. What if one of you guys has to pee?”

“We’ll close our eyes,” Carlos responded almost immediately, eliciting a loud laugh from Heather.

James silently mocked her laughter and went back to concentrating on his birdhouse. Muttering things about how “dumb” and “stupid” Carlos and Heather had been acting. They spent the rest of the scheduled birdhouse time in silence, gazing into each other’s eyes every now and then as they each completed their structures with one hand. Before long, Kevin arrived at their table, announcing it was finally time to go and see if they could become unglued. He reached for Heather’s wrist, forcing Carlos along with her, but James refused to let himself become separated from his best friend, grabbing Carlos around the wrist as well. With Carlos attempting to free himself from his best friend’s grasp and Kevin pulling Heather in the opposite direction, it wasn’t long before their hands separated, sending Carlos tumbling into James while Heather caught her balance on the edge of the table.

“Ow,” Carlos said as he landed on James’ leg. “What’d you do that for, stupid?!”

“I just figured it’d be faster than waiting for that stuff to work. And it was,” James replied matter-of-factly, giving his signature head tilt and sly smile he reserved for times when he had proven himself right.

“Well it was faster but now my hand is all red and painful!” Carlos retorted with an angry look on his face, brushing himself off after standing up. “You’re the worst, James Diamond!”

James shrugged off Carlos’ anger, knowing that with him it was only a temporary thing. They’d gotten into fights like this before and had always come running back with a hug and an apology a few hours later, so James figured it’d only be time before the same thing happened. 

 

A few hours later, Carlos was still sulking at the opposite end of their cabin, pouting and making those same sad puppy eyes that had gotten him out of trouble and had oftentimes gotten James to set his pride aside and go apologize to his friend. This time they seemed to have the same effect.

“Look,” James said as he stood in front of Carlos’ bunk, “I’m really sorry about earlier today. How can I make it up to you? Do you want me to sneak out and go get you a corn dog? Cause I’ll do that if I have to.”

Carlos looked up at James with that look that sent even the toughest of people reeling with its cuteness and shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe.”

“Carlos…”

He sighed and uncrossed his arms, motioning for James to sit next to him on the mattress of his bunk. “Can you just…not be so mean to Heather? I know you don’t like her and everything but I really like her and I want to be more than just her friend. So it’d be nice if my best friend and future wife could get along. I don’t want to have to choose between the two of you.”

James felt a pang of guilt cross his stomach. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I can do that.”

“Good,” Carlos said as smiled brightly. “Tomorrow’s our last day here and I don’t want it to be awkward. I think she’s gonna give me her phone number!”

James smiled forcefully. He didn’t want Heather to follow Carlos away from camp, the threat of being replaced going back home with them. He had promised, however, that he’d be on his best behavior this one last day and figured he might as well just go with it. After all, how long could a camp crush possibly last?

 

The next morning, everyone had gathered for one final Camp Wonky Donkey sing-along. The children were off-key and some where yelling more than they were singing, making James try even harder to outshine them with his sparkling vibrato. This often elicited strange looks from the kids around him but he didn’t care. That voice of his would make him famous someday and those looks would change to ones of awe. 

“James,” Heather said as she tried to get his attention, “could you come here for a minute?”

He contemplated ignoring her, but remembered the vow he had made to Carlos the night before. “Sure. What’s up?”  
“Look, I really have a huge crush on Carlos. And I’m too shy to tell him in person so…could you please give him this note for me? Please?” she begged.

James looked down to see the sparkly pink piece of folded construction paper she held in her hand. It had “To: Carlos” written in cursive, accentuated with a small heart made of white paper.  
“Uh, yeah,” he replied. “Sure. I’ll…totally do that.”

 

Heather bounced in excitement and hugged James softly, catching the boy off guard. “Thank you!”

 

“No problem,” he smiled before they exchanged “hee-haw”s. He tucked the note into his back pocket and walked off to try to find Carlos amongst the sea of kids littering the parking lot. On the way, he kept thinking about what he pictured last night. Phone calls to Carlos from Heather interrupting his own, weekends spent going to the park with Heather instead of the boys, “Heather this”, and “Heather that”. He couldn’t do it. He took the note out of his back pocket and without thinking or looking back, crumpled it up and tossed it into the nearest waste bin.

 

“Hi,” Carlos greeted James as he skipped his way up the path leading to the parking lot. “Where’s Heather?”

 

“Why? What’d she say to you?” James replied nervously.

 

“Nothing,” Carlos said with a laugh. “I just wanna see her one last time.”

 

“Oh…she left already!”

 

“Really? She didn’t even say goodbye…” Carlos felt his heart sink. All of those lovely memories the two had and she didn’t even bother giving him a proper “see ya later” or anything.

 

James, seeing that Carlos had become visibly upset, wrapped an arm around his friend. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “There’ll be other girls for you. Prettier girls. Girls who will say goodbye and not just abandon you.” He couldn’t believe himself. What was he thinking lying to Carlos like this?

 

A familiar horn sounded and James and Carlos recognized it as Mrs. Garcia’s van. The boys ran toward it, hugging Mrs. Garcia before they hopped inside.

 

“How was camp, boys? I want to hear all about it,” she said.

 

“Great!” James replied, knowing he was exaggerating just a tiny bit.

 

“Okay,” Carlos said quietly, still visibly upset at losing the love of his life.

Mrs. Garcia made a face. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

 

“He’s fine,” James replied for him. “He’s just upset because we have to go home and leave this awesome camp behind.”

 

Carlos sighed and looked out the van’s window, not making a sound the entire trip home except for an occasional quiet groan. James felt awful. This was the kind of thing that would come back and haunt you, like so many tales of karma gone wrong he’d heard talked about before.

 

But as the summer came to a close, Carlos had moved on from Heather to the new girls in his class, none of which seemed to really be interested in him romantically, giving James the opportunity to exhibit his best behavior when it came to his best friend and girls from then on. At least until any of those girls showed interest in his friend. He’d make up any excuse to steal the girls away from Carlos, claiming they weren’t really suited to date him and, in a way, he was being truthful. He never felt that any girl was worthy of Carlos so he always tried his best to make sure that none of them ever broke his heart, even if it meant Carlos would remain single until they were old men living in a retirement home together. James often guessed that people found this kind of behavior to be selfish, but he saw it as more of an insurance against the breakup of his and Carlos’ friendship.

 

As the years went on and Carlos’ rejections seemed to pile up, James calmed down on his interference. But when the boys moved to Hollywood and the girls came and went and a few showed interest in Carlos, he was back to his old ways once again. It was sometimes something as simple as pretending to be interested in the same girls he was, and given James’ natural good looks, the girls would often stick with him anyway…until he dumped them after one date. Other times, he devised an intricate plan to get Carlos to see all of the flaws in his girls. It was tricky, but it usually worked.

 

But now here he was standing in front of his best friend who had once again just lost the “love of his life” he’d met at camp. Heather came back for a while and James tried to help Carlos win her back this time. No tricks or interference, partly because of the “best friend code”, but mostly because seeing Carlos as devastated as he was on the car ride back from camp six years ago was what James worked so hard to keep from happening again. He tried his best, but Heather was now interested in James. Carlos handed him a note from Heather in which she had written how she had a crush on James and added her phone number and a playful “call me!” at the bottom. Never one to reject a pretty girl, James excitedly clutched the red piece of paper and nearly exclaimed that it was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him. Then, he saw the look on Carlos’ face. There it was: the sad puppy face. This time it was more of a kicked puppy face and James was filled with a mixture of guilt and another feeling he couldn’t quite place at the time. He crumpled up the note as he declared Heather wasn’t worth losing his best friend over and the two high-fived each other before their hands became stuck together with remnants of glue from the recreation of Camp Wonky Donkey they’d built to try to woo Heather earlier in the day.

 

Then Kendall, Camille, Logan, and Lucy all ran past them in some sort of strange love triangle, soap opera-esque drama and for a few hours, the focus shifted to false love triangles, lies, figure skating, and another party game gone wrong. After everyone was done chasing Carlos for doing unspeakable things to them while they slept, the group of friends retired to their own apartments. Kendall and Logan went straight to bed, their arms wrapped around each other as they apologized and hugged for the tenth time since taking the elevator back up to 2J. James headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth and Carlos retired to the room he shared with him.

 

“You doing okay, bud?” asked James as he entered the room later and stood over Carlos, who was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and letting out an occasional melancholy sigh.

 

“Yeah,” Carlos said softly. “Kinda. No, not really.”

 

James felt his stomach drop. He couldn’t help but feel all of the years of getting between Carlos and nearly every girl well up in a big bubble of guilt inside of him.

 

“Look, I’m still really sorry about what happened at camp. But you know, Heather was really cute,” he lied.

 

Carlos scoffed.

 

“What? What was that?” James replied as he imitated his friend.

 

“You don’t have to lie,” Carlos said. “I know you didn’t really like Heather. I know you were just jealous because you thought I was gonna replace you with her.”

 

James stood in disbelieving silence for a few seconds before responding. “How’d you figure it out?”

 

“It doesn’t take a genius. I was suspicious to begin with when we were at camp, but then you decided that somehow I was more important than a pretty girl? Yeah. That’s how I figured it out.”

 

“Well, it’s not just that,” James replied somewhat taken aback. “I mean yeah, Heather Fox is…a fox. And yeah, I didn’t like her back at camp but I’d be happy to date her now, I mean…she’s the spokesmodel for FaceAlive!”

 

“James, what’s your point?” Carlos interjected.

 

“My point is,” James said as he was reminded of what he was trying to say in the first place, “that I might not have liked her back then. And yes, I was totally jealous of her and threatened. And yeah, I think she’s super gorgeous now. But…I’m not letting her go because of all of that camp stuff. I let her go cause…cause you mean way more to me than being some model’s boyfriend.”

 

Carlos stared at James for a few seconds, a look of amusement on his face. “I don’t know if I believe you, Diamond.”

 

“What do you want me to do?” James said for what seemed like the tenth time today before sitting next to Carlos on his bed.

 

“I don’t want you to do anything. I just…want you to let me date whoever I want. And I want you to stop trying to sabotage all of my dates. And I just want you to be happy for me!”

 

James noticed Carlos had become visibly upset and tense. He was clearly still angry with him for what had happened earlier, but now all of those previous interferences appeared to be catching up with him.

 

“Carlos,” he said as he placed a calming hand on the other boy’s knee, “I do want you to be happy. I ‘sabotaged’ all of those dates of yours cause I didn’t want those girls to break your heart and I still don’t want that to happen. I want you to be happy. I just…wanna be around to see it.”

 

“W-what does that mean?” Carlos replied, visibly confused.

 

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just so used to being with you all the time that the thought of you running off and getting married to a girl and leaving me behind is, well, terrifying to me.”

 

“So what do you want me to do then, James?” Carlos said with a light chuckle. “Marry you?”

 

“What? No. I- Wha- N-no,” James stuttered as his face became flushed with a bright shade of pink.

 

Carlos let out a loud laugh. “I’m just kidding, dude!”

 

James punched Carlos playfully in the arm and the two wrestled playfully before hearing a voice from their doorway.

 

“Who’s getting married?”


	4. Butterflies

James and Carlos lifted themselves off of each other and sat down on the bed as they noticed Kendall had come into the room and was looking around, seemingly trying to find something. Carlos moved closer to James and smiled broadly.

"Me and James," he said as he wrapped his arms around the taller boy and pretended to give him a kiss on the cheek. "He just can’t stand to be without me."

"Knock it off!" James yelped as he pushed Carlos away. He rolled around on his bed, howling with laughter. "What are you doing here anyway, Kendall?"

"I think Carlos ‘borrowed’ my toothbrush again," he answered, cocking an eyebrow upward.

"Ew," James exclaimed. "Carlos, that’s gross."

"Why? I wasn’t using it to brush my teeth. I needed to get some gunk off of the bottom of my shoe!"

"That’s even grosser!"

"Well, I didn’t come to get it back. I just came to take something from Carlos. Yoink!" Kendall said as he took Carlos’ helmet from the dresser near the bedroom door.

"Hey, give that back!" Carlos shouted, jumping over James and sprinting off of the bed, chasing Kendall out the door and through the apartment. Kendall, intent on giving Carlos a hard time as revenge for his toothbrush theft, continued to run, leading him and now a very amused James through the corridors of the Palm Woods. The three of them raced down the stairway and through the lobby before Carlos abruptly stopped, causing James to crash into him and sending the taller boy tumbling backwards into one of the chairs that was used in the seating area. Kendall laughed obnoxiously as he pointed to the fallen boy. He slapped James on the knee and made his way back to the elevators, still laughing and waving goodbye to his friends.

Carlos waved back lazily, not taking his eyes off of what had stopped him in his tracks.

"What is it?" James called out as he lay twisted on top of the arm of the chair. He lifted himself up and noticed Carlos was staring out into the pool area. The two of them had hurriedly but thoroughly decorated it to look like Camp Wonky Donkey in a last ditch effort to get Heather to fall back in love with Carlos earlier in the day.

"We forgot to give back those tents and the fake trees and rocks and stuff," Carlos responded, his face visibly becoming sad.

James knew Carlos’ current mood was more about what had happened earlier than it was about the props they had “borrowed” from Colossal Studios.

"Well," James said in an attempt to lessen the tension that had been reintroduced by the memories of six years ago, "we could just…use them. You know, to do something with them and do things in the tents."

Carlos eyed James up and down suspiciously, slanting his eyes dramatically. “Like what kind of ‘things’…?

"N-nothing like that!" James exclaimed, looking aghast and turning a shade of bright red he usually reserved for moments when he was truly embarrassed.

Carlos threw his head back and laughed at his best friend’s reaction. Sometimes it was too easy to get him flustered.

"Okay," James said, smiling now and catching on to the other boy’s playful ribbing. "What I meant was that we could hang out in the tents and make things at the craft table and stuff like that. It’ll be like going back in time to Wonky Donkey…but without all of the icky girl drama I caused."

Carlos’ eyes shifted down and to the side as he took a few seconds to think about James’ proposition. “I’d like that.”

"Well then…shall we?" James extended an arm in Carlos’ direction and he accepted, linking their arms together as they walked over to the fire pits they had relocated to be closer to the "camp" area. In their rush to build and recreate Wonky Donkey, they hadn’t stopped to admire all of their handiwork. James in particular thought it was a damn good replica of the camp. Carlos didn’t really notice since he’d spent all but a few hours staring at Heather instead of at their natural surroundings, but James assured him it looked just like the camp and the boy took his word for it. They made a lap around the camp, taking in the "nature", which smelled like a mixture of plastic and the artificially scented pine air fresheners Carlos had hidden between the faux plants. He claimed they would make it really smell like they were in the woods, but James insisted it smelled like they had just gone for a ride in his grandparents’ relic of a car.

Carlos gasped. “She forgot Nutty Cumberdale!” He ran toward and picked up the plush squirrel, stroking its soft, brown fur and looking at it sadly as if it had been a real squirrel left behind by its owner. He took Nutty with him and joined James, who had gone over to the craft table area to retrieve a bag of now slightly stale marshmallows.

"They won’t be in the best of conditions for your world famous toasted ones," James told Carlos as he walked up to him. He swapped the squirrel for the bag and picked out a marshmallow, squeezing it gently and examining it. James watched Carlos in amusement and felt the familiar signs of a strong blush beginning to form on his face. He cleared his throat quietly and looked away, playing with the plush squirrel he now held in his hands to try to distract himself from the butterflies he felt in his stomach.

Carlos looked up at the sound James made and noticed his friend was looking somewhat flushed. “What?”

"Huh?" James replied.

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing. Why would anything be wrong? There’s nothing wrong." James laughed nervously and tried to change the subject. "How are the marshmallows?"

"Uh," Carlos responded after flinching at the intensity of James’ question, "they’re okay. Not the best but they’ll do. And who knows? Maybe I can work my magic on them."

"Yeh," James said as his voice cracked and he cleared his throat once again. "Yeah, I’m one hundred percent sure you can work your magic on them. You can do anything."

"Well, I don’t know about that," Carlos replied. "If that was true, I’d have a girlfriend by now."

His best friend laughed louder than was necessary and Carlos looked at him curiously. James reprimanded himself silently when Carlos’ back had been turned, wondering why he was acting like…well, like Carlos whenever he was around a pretty girl. “Weird,” he said aloud.

"What’s that?" Carlos called out from the fire pit.

"I said uh, ‘weird’. As in, ‘weird, how the…trees…are so…tree-like.’ You know?"

Carlos sighed and nodded, not quite sure what his friend was going on about now. He shrugged and lit a match, throwing it onto the logs of the fire pit. The fire quickly consumed the logs and cast a soft, orange glow over them. It created harsh shadows from the trees and onto James, who thanked the fire gods for giving his face a hiding place to save him from anymore embarrassment during the night. Or so he hoped they would.

"Toss me a marshmallow, yeah?" Carlos told James quietly, trying not to wake Mr. Bitters up. They weren’t allowed in the pool area after ten, but as far as James and Carlos and anyone with a beating heart (which Bitters seemed to lack) were concerned, this was the best time to roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories.

James dug around in the bag of marshmallows, trying to find the softest one he could. His hands had become wet with perspiration, however, and when he tried to balance the bag, it slipped out from under them, sending a flurry of marshmallows into the air around him. A few came down and hit him on the face, but he managed to salvage three of them. He shyly handed them to Carlos, saying he felt it was better for his friend to hold onto them instead of himself.

"Sorry," he said. "I don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight. I’m acting like a stupid kid or something."

"It’s okay," Carlos said as he concentrated on perfectly toasting the small batch of marshmallows that was left.

James looked at Carlos while he toasted his marshmallows, silently wondering what exactly had caused him to go from his usually smooth and relaxed self into a spastic, bumbling mess. He stared off in Carlos’ direction and flinched whenever the other boy made any sudden movements.

"What’s the matter?" Carlos asked with a light chuckle.

"Huh?" James replied. "Oh, uh. Nothing. Or maybe everything? I don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight. Maybe it’s just not a good time to be here. Maybe I should go upstairs and get some sleep. I think I need to get some sleep. Yeah, that’s it." He spun around to head back toward their apartment.

"Well, wait!" Carlos said. "Weren’t we supposed to tell ghost stories and spend the night down here in the tents?"

James winced as he remembered the promise he made to Carlos: a night at Wonky Donkey. No girl drama, just the two of them and a new batch of memories to make. But as keen as James was on keeping his promise to his best friend, he felt his stomach twist into knots. A night alone with Carlos by the campfire was just the thing he did not need right now. He didn’t know why, but he knew that his clumsiness tonight had something to do with Carlos and he feared that if he stuck around him any longer, he’d end up single-handedly bringing the entire Palm Woods down in a massive implosion.

Carlos huffed and stood up from the plastic tree trunk he sat on in front of the fire. He walked over to James, who was standing as still as the artificial trees surrounding the boys, and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing James to twitch and tense up nervously.

"What is wrong with you?" Carlos asked with a giggle.

James felt his heart beating faster but he wasn’t sure if it was because he was startled by Carlos or just because of Carlos in general. He swallowed as he felt a lump forming in his throat and turned slowly to face his friend. He exhaled hard, sending a stream of breath directly into Carlos’ face, causing him to blink as the air blew into his eyes.

"Sorry."

"It’s…okay," Carlos replied, noticing James’ face was now a mixture of nervousness and a little bit of sadness. "Are you okay?"

"I don’t know," James said quietly. "I’m not-"

Carlos reached out and took one of James’ hands in his own, catching the other boy by surprise. He noticed he was shivering now, thinking it strange due to the fact that the temperature was still quite warm and he squeezed the other boy’s hand gently to try to get him to calm down, not knowing he was making it worse.

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"I’m just trying to help."

"Well, you’re not helping, okay?"

Carlos flinched at James’ sudden aggressiveness. He snapped his hand away from Carlos’ grasp, apologizing as he ran into one of the prop tents and tried to close it up as quickly as possible. James felt safe for now, though he could see the silhouette of his friend looming just outside of his hiding place.

"I’m not leaving here until you come out of that tent," Carlos said firmly, becoming irritated by James’ sudden lack of communication and, seemingly, manners.

"Fine."

"Fine," retorted Carlos. He sat down directly in front of the tent’s opening, crossing his arms and making the angriest face he could think to make. He knew James couldn’t see his face, but he’d hoped the boy could feel his aggravation from the other side of the cheap, thin material covering the structure.

An hour later, both boys still sat crossed legged opposite each other, but they both began to nod off as it was well past their usual bedtime. Carlos rested his side against one of the pool chairs and James’ head drooped down as he leant against the tent softly. Five minutes later, both boys were startled awake when they heard a crash. James had been leaning too hard against the fabric of the tent, causing it to tip over and take down a few pool chairs with it. The bottom of the tent had separated from the top cover and James lay next to it, motionless and embarrassed but still somewhat groggy.

Carlos stood up in automatic response to check on his friend, forgetting they were still mad at each other and in the middle of a mutual silent treatment. He opened his mouth to ask if he was okay, but thought better of it and instead loomed over him, his arms once again crossed and his face contorted into the angriest one he could imagine.

James looked up at Carlos, who expected him to take a hint at the look on his face. Instead, James began to convulse with laughter. Carlos scrunched up his face even further, upset that this wasn’t the way this plan was supposed to go, but after looking down at James, who was now rolling around with tears streaming down his face, he began to chuckle. Soon, a full-blown smile lit up the boy’s face and he started to laugh almost as hard as James. The taller boy gasped for air as he noticed Carlos had joined him in what he guessed was a sleep deprivation-induced fit of laughter. He tugged on Carlos’ arm and his friend landed directly next to him. They laughed for a few minutes more before sighing simultaneously, their laughs subsiding to giggles and their giggles subsiding to silence after a few moments.

James was the first to break the silence. “Why do we always fight about such dumb things, Carlos?”

Carlos lifted himself onto his side, resting on his elbow and looking down at James, who was still lying on the floor. “I don’t know. Maybe cause you won’t tell me what’s wrong?”

"Oh," James said as he turned away embarrassedly. "Right."

"What is wrong, anyway?"

"I don’t know," James replied with a sigh. "It’s just…when we were up there alone at the craft table and you were looking at the marshmallows, I was looking at you and I felt…"

Carlos’ eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Felt what?”

"I don’t know," James said again, those same three words which he felt had become his catchphrase as of late. "Just…something. Here." He placed a hand on his stomach, indicating where he had experienced the feeling.

"What? Like…butterflies?"

James blushed wildly, his eyes widening, and turned away from Carlos, who had a smile growing on his face.

"James!" Carlos said in surprise. "Of course! Now it all makes sense! The jealousy, the sabotage, the defensive stuff…"

"Carlos, please…" James begged quietly.

"You like me, don’t you?"

"Shhh, Bitters will hear you if you don’t shut up," James insisted.

"I don’t care!" Carlos responded, becoming giddy with excitement at what he’d just figured out.

"I do," James whispered, a look of concern growing on his face.

Carlos quieted down and looked at James, causing the taller boy to turn away shyly at the eye contact they’d just made. He looked down as well, trying to engage James again, a trick he picked up at Wonky Donkey during one of their numerous arguments. “Come on, James. Let’s talk about it!”

"What’s there to talk about?" James asked, still trying to avoid his friend’s gaze. "You already figured it out."

"So, it’s true."

"Yeah," James replied, turning around to finally face the other boy. "Yeah, it’s true. I like you, okay? I’m a big jealous baby. I don’t want anyone else to have you if I can’t have you and that’s why I drive all of your girlfriends away. None of them deserve you cause they don’t know you like I know you. And they’d probably break your heart!" His words started to flow together into a mush and he was saying things he’d never even thought about until they left his mouth. It was as if he was revealing all of these things to Carlos and to himself.

Carlos sat with his mouth agape, not knowing how to process all of the newfound information, let alone how to respond to it.

"I’m sorry," James said as he stood up from the circle of polyester fabric that was once the bottom of the camp tent he sat in. "I shouldn’t have said anything. You probably think I’m weird and creepy now. I would totally understand if you hated me now because I’m selfish and stupid."

"James," Carlos called out before standing up, bringing himself just a few inches from his friend, "it’s not that. It’s just…I don’t really know what to think. I’m still kinda shocked! I didn’t know you felt all of those things. I mean, I kinda thought you maybe had a crush on me but this is different. It’s almost like you _really_ like me."

James looked at Carlos, tracing every inch of the boy’s face with his eyes as if trying to store the memory away for safekeeping, just in case something went wrong after tonight. "I’m sorry," he apologized yet again.

Carlos looked up again, this time catching James’ gaze. “It’s okay,” he said, his voice coming out as a soft whisper as the taller boy drew the both of them closer together. Carlos’ breaths came out in short bursts as James leaned his face in closer until finally catching the boy’s lips with his own. It was a short kiss, soft but still intense with the build-up of more than six years of denial and jealousy. After parting, both boys kept their eyes closed for a few seconds before exhaling quietly.

"I think I need to go to bed," Carlos said almost apologetically.

James nodded understandingly. It was a lot to take in for one night for his friend and for himself, so they silently agreed to sleep on it and talk more in the morning…or afternoon considering they had stayed up way too late to possibly wake up in time for breakfast. “I’ll just…stay behind and make sure I put the fire out and stuff,” he said somewhat awkwardly.

The truth was he wanted to stay up a little bit longer to process all of the night’s events, including all of the revelations he’d made to himself in the process. He waved goodnight to Carlos and they both smiled softly at one another. Maybe it had been an emotionally draining night, but James had a feeling things would turn out okay if the kiss had been any indication of things to come.


	5. Shivers

The next morning, the air in apartment 2J was noticeably different. Kendall and Logan carried on with their friendly, and oftentimes flirtatious, banter but noticed that James and Carlos had barely spoken one word to each other. Kendall and Logan exchanged looks, knowing exactly what the other was thinking without saying a word, a form of communication they’d perfected after their years of friendship. Kendall grabbed Logan by the elbow and led him away from their two friends, who were sitting on opposite sides of the orange couch by the window, watching but not really paying attention to a special about carnival food. Carlos perked up at the mention of corn dogs, showing emotion for the first time that morning.

“So,” Kendall whispered to his friend, “what do you think’s going on between them?”

Logan shrugged. “How should I know?”

“You know everything!”

“I can’t read minds, Kendall!”

“Well I know that,” Kendall replied, rolling his eyes. “I meant like isn’t there some kind of non-verbal stuff you can pick up on?”

“I guess I can try,” Logan said as he tilted his body to look around the half wall of the nook in which they stood. He watched James and Carlos intently for a few moments. This wasn’t like the argument they’d had the day before, he was sure. When Carlos was upset it was noticeable on his face, but there wasn’t really a trace of any sort of emotion on it just now. Logan thought this was odd, as Carlos was usually the kind to wear his heart on his sleeve. There was something he couldn’t quite place here and he almost gave up on trying to figure it out.  He turned to Kendall to say it was no use, but noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Carlos had gotten up to go to the kitchen, no doubt to get a corn dog from the freezer after watching the special on carnival food.

Logan quickly grabbed Kendall by the arm and instructed him to duck behind the passthrough behind the dining room table.

“What’s going o-“

“Shhh,” Logan whispered, “something’s happening.”

Kendall focused his attention on Carlos while Logan watched James on the couch. James watched Carlos when the other boy wasn’t looking, a look of desperation taking over his face followed by a deep sigh. Logan’s eyes narrowed then widened almost instantly. When Carlos went back to the couch, empty-handed, Logan grabbed Kendall by the wrist and hurriedly led him out into the hallway, not bothering to close the door quietly. James and Carlos both turned around and faced the apartment door when they heard it slam then looked at each other before turning away awkwardly.

“So what’d ya find out?” Kendall asked Logan excitedly.

“Well, it seems a little crazy,” Logan said hesitantly, “but I think there’s something…romantic going on here.”

“What?!”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure but I think maybe something happened between them and now they’re afraid to talk about it.”

“What do you mean ‘something happened’?” Kendall asked. “Like…they kissed or something?”

“That’s entirely possible,” Logan responded.

“Wow,” Kendall said. He wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if the two of them had actually kissed. The way they carried on sometimes, he felt it was only a matter of time before they eventually got together.

“Yeah.”

James and Carlos, meanwhile were still frozen watching TV. Neither of them bothered to try to change the channel, scared of the fact that if they’d both reached for the remote at the same time their hands might have brushed, or even worse, touched. 

Back on the other side of the apartment door, Kendall and Logan were still discussing the possibility that their friends might be smooching behind their backs when they heard a rustling coming from the elevator and noticed the familiar red patch of hair sticking out from behind a brown grocery bag as Kendall’s mom.

“Hey, ma!” He called out. “Need help?”

“Please!” she replied desperately.

Kendall tapped Logan softly on the chest and he followed behind, helping Katie out with  _her_  bags. The four of them went back into the apartment and set the bags down on the dining room table.

James and Carlos gave Kendall and Logan puzzled looks.

“Weren’t you guys just here?” James asked.

“Yeah, but,” Kendall responded, “weeee…decided to go help my mom and Katie out with grocery shopping.

“What are you talking about?” Katie asked her brother with a bewildered look on her face. “You guys were just standing out in the hallway.”

“Yes, that is true,” Logan agreed.  “It’s because we…we needed to…”

“We were  _going_  to help,” Kendall added as he lifted a finger, “but mom and Katie had already come back from shopping right before we were about to step on the elevator.”

“Yes, yes. That’s exactly what happened.”

“Whatever,” Katie replied. “You guys are all a bunch of weirdos.”

Mrs. Knight laughed at her daughter. “Come on, help me put these groceries away.” She motioned with her index finger to include the two boys sitting on the couch. “ _All_  of you.”

James stood up at the same time as Carlos and the two of them did something of a dance in an effort to let the other boy go first before deciding to just go around opposite sides of the coffee table. Carlos made an excited noise as he reached into one of the bags and pulled out a box of frozen corn dogs, causing James to turn in his direction and chuckle. Carlos turned around and faced him and the two exchanged soft but bright smiles before returning to their kitchen stocking duties. Kendall and Logan gave each other a knowing look.

Kendall broke the silence in an attempt to get the ball rolling on conversation. “So…anything exciting happen lately?”

James and Carlos seemingly froze at the same time, but Carlos spoke first. “What do you mean? Why would anything exciting happen? Trust me, if there was anything exciting going on, you’d know about it.”

James nodded and gestured in agreement.

“Okay,” Kendall said, throwing his hands out in front of him defensively.

Mrs. Knight noticed the air of tension that had been following the boys around today and made a face. What had these boys been up to? Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been very good, knowing the four troublemakers she’d been taking care of for the past year and a half.

“You boys doing any recording today?” she said, trying to get the four of them to be on speaking terms again.

“Nah.”

“Nope.”

“Not today.”

Exasperated, Mrs. Knight instructed the boys to put down all of the groceries and face her. “What is going on with you boys today? You’ve been acting so strange and quiet. What are you up to?”

James and Carlos looked at each other guiltily. They supposed this was entirely their fault but they couldn’t risk say anything about the night before, especially since they themselves weren’t quite sure what they were dealing with here.

“Mama Knight,” James said after what seemed an eternity, “nothing’s going on here…at least not between all of us. Kendall and Logan have nothing to do with this. It’s all me and Carlos’ fault.”

Carlos turned to look at James, wondering exactly how much detail the boy was going to spill about the previous night.

“We just…need to talk about some stuff,” he continued. “And we promise that once we figure some things out, we’ll make things better.”

“Yep,” Carlos added, nodding vigorously, causing the straps of his helmet to flail about wildly and hit him in the face.

James led Carlos to their shared bedroom and closed the door behind them. He sat down on his own bed, folding his hands together and exhaling thoroughly. Carlos paced about in front of him, biting his nails and occasionally stealing a glance at the taller boy. Neither of them was quite sure how to bring up what had happened at the fake Wonky Donkey last night, but they were determined to stay locked up in the room all month if they had to.

They both spoke the other’s name simultaneously and laughed.

“Hey, listen,” James said first. “I think we should talk about what happened yesterday. You know, the…kiss.”

“Yeah,” Carlos replied, “I think so too.”

“I, um…I totally meant it. All of that stuff I said about your girls and my jealousy and my…insecurity, I guess. And the kiss. I really meant  _that_ ,” James said with a forced laugh, trying to make sure things wouldn’t get too awkward.

“I could tell,” Carlos said. He blushed a little, though with his darker skin it wasn’t very noticeable.

“Well, I  _have_  been told I’m a good kisser,” James bragged.

“James…”

“What? I don’t write the news, Carlos, I just report it.”

“Wow. The ‘90s called, James. They want their cheesy catchphrases back.”

“Shut up,” James said as he giggled and stood up to wrap his arms around Carlos in an attempt to engage him in a friendly fight. But even if he tried to make it seem like old times, the kiss had changed everything. The slightest touch sent shivers through Carlos’ skin and James felt those familiar butterflies once again as he held on to his friend…or whatever he was of him now.

James let go of Carlos and cleared his throat, apologizing for the awkwardness and going back to sit on the bed.

“It’s fine,” Carlos said and joined James on the bed. “I mean it’s not really a bad thing to wanna put your hands all over me now.”

“Woah, hey,” James replied with a mock offended tone. “Let’s take it slow, buddy.”

Carlos threw his head back and laughed loudly, causing James to watch him and smile adoringly. He knew Carlos got enjoyment out of making him flustered and it was just one of the things he loved about the boy.

Love. There was that word again. James had never been big on romance. Sure, he’d been known to give his dates flowers and chocolates and present them with cheesy tokens of affection, but as far as he was concerned, that was just called “being a gentleman”. The kinds of things he wanted to give to Carlos extended far beyond the occasional box of chocolates and cheap gas station bouquets. He wanted something more. He didn’t want to  _show_  Carlos how much he loved him, he wanted the boy to see it for himself.

Carlos noticed James had been deep in thought again and waved a hand in front of him to regain his attention. “Yoohoo.”

“Sorry,” James said with a shy smile. “I was just thinking.”

“About?”

“About you,” he replied with a grin, causing Carlos to return the gesture.

“What about me, though?”

“I was just thinking about how much I really lo-… _like_  you,” James responded, obviously wanting to say a different word, but fearing it would be too much for Carlos to handle right now. He kept it to himself for the time being, figuring sometime later down the line would be a better time to say it.

“Oh, well,” Carlos said, “that’s kinda nice.” He leaned a little bit closer to James and the boy took the hint, leaning himself forward and meeting Carlos halfway into another kiss. This time it was longer and less shy. They pressed their lips together harder and opened them slightly, mimicking the kind of kisses they’d seen on TV shows, especially  _New Town High_ , which they’d watched when Kendall wasn’t around. It seemed to work because before he knew what he was doing, Carlos threw himself on top of James, pushing the other boy down onto the bed in which they sat.  Their lips were still pressed together and their breathing became more ragged and harsh between kisses.

“Carlos,” James said as he tried to regain his breath, “maybe we should stop for a bit?”

Carlos looked down at James shyly, apologizing while he lifted himself off of him. James sat up shortly after and they both looked down awkwardly at the floor before Carlos started to chuckle at their recklessness. He looked up at James and tousled his hair, which had been messed up by their brief makeout session anyway.

“Hey! Watch the hair,” James shouted, returning the favor, then stopping and putting a finger to his own lips as he heard rustling coming from outside their door.

They quietly slipped off of the bed and inched forward slowly, trying to catch whoever was listening in on their conversation. James turned the handle and stepped back and Kendall and Logan came tumbling forward into their room, landing one on top of the other. They looked up at James shyly, who was standing over them with his hands on his hips.

“What are you doing?”

“We were just making sure everything was okay,” Logan said.

“Yeah, we didn’t hear any talking after a while so we thought you guys might have killed each other,” Kendall added, “especially since we heard weird noises afterwards.” He looked over at Carlos, whose hair was sticking up at odd angles, then at James whose own hair was messy and not very James-like at all. He mouthed a silent “oh” and pushed himself out from underneath Logan and stood up.

“Well, we’ll just…leave you to do your stuff,” Logan said from the floor.

“Uh, yeah,” Kendall said. “You guys have fun.” He wiggled his eyebrows then reached down to grab Logan by the hands, helping him off of the floor of the bedroom and closing the door behind the two of them.

James and Carlos looked at each other shyly, knowing they gotten a little carried away for two people who’d only been in a relationship for a few minutes. But even if it had only been official for a few minutes, it had been years in the making, and both boys knew that the built up tension and denial had to explode somehow. They decided it wasn’t the right time to go very far, but it still felt nice to make out, so they’d keep their schedules free for some alone time from then on.

“So, uh,” Carlos said after he’d stopped biting his lip, “this thing here? What is it? Are we official now? Can I call you my boyfriend?”

“Carlos,” James responded, “you can call me anything you want.” He leaned forward and placed a soft, quick kiss on the other boy’s lips.

“Hmmm,” Carlos said, thinking hard for a few seconds. “Can I call you ‘dork’?”

James huffed in amusement and wrapped Carlos into a tight hug. “Only if I can call you ‘stupidface’!”

“Hey!” Carlos yelped, pushing James away and punching him lightly on the arm.

James laughed hard and tossed his head back, mocking the way Carlos reacted when he’d gotten him worked up.

“You’re dumb,” Carlos said as he settled himself back into James’ arms, “but I still love you.”

“I…love you, too,” James said, sighing loudly in relief that he wouldn’t have to be the first one to say it. He felt a little bit of regret for not saying it sooner, but he reasoned with himself that from that moment on, he’d have many more chances during many more days to tell Carlos he loved him first.


End file.
